In this episode, I talk about Dave Chappelle (thought he did the bit in DC, it was actually Detroit), Fan Ho, Evel Knievel, The Girl In The Coffee Shop Window, fast food, and Colon Blow. And believe it or not, this all has something to do with photography.
Great piece again, man. Definitely one of the best parts of my subscriptions on this platform are these “audio verites” from you. Always so good. Also, I remember seeing the colon blow when it first aired, I was young but I’ve always been a huge SNL fan and that’s a classic.
Thx man!!!! So glad to hear that you’re enjoying it. Kind of feel like I’m sending these messages out into the void, like all the work that we produced on social media. It’s a huge reward for me when anybody makes any kind of positive comment so I sincerely appreciate it. And yeah, Colon Blow is one of my all-time favorites!
Loved this. It is a challenge everyday to deal with the balance of what is commercially successful and what we want to do as artists. Most days, I try to let it go... but damn if it isn't grating when an HDR shot straight out of 2014 lands somebody a lucrative deal. Of course, I'm happy for them and at the same time a bit disgusted with the world. So it goes, huh? Cheers, Jim.
Cheers Hanz and thanks for listening! Yeah there’s a ton of derivative work out there that seems to get a lot of love - it’s disheartening, but I just tell myself to keep going. It’s all we can do. Besides, an agent told me once that commercial photography is 95% about the business, knocking on doors, chasing after it, and 5% is about taking the photos. I’m not sure I can do that, or want to, so I just do my own thing.
Strange how the Universe drops things in our laps at the appropriate time. If I’d listened to this 2 months ago, I would’ve pushed back a bit and say just let people shoot what they want to shoot. But now I’m trying to shoot with more intention and “make the attempt” because I want to push myself. Just today I wrote my next post for next week about how shooting on pure instinct is actually due to fear of trying and failing (at least for myself).
Thanks for your thoughts!!! I think as we grow as creative people, our perspective is constantly changing. I certainly agree if someone is happy where they are with what they’re doing, even if it’s something somebody else has done, then that’s cool, because you have to please yourself before anybody else. But I do think if you’re trying to grow, you have to push yourself, test yourself, educate yourself about the medium you’re trying to grow in, and make consistent efforts towards that growth. To be clear: I myself have taken all the pictures I’m saying not to take in this piece 😂 - most of us start out copying other photographers or just producing really kind of inept work. But if we wanna get past that, it’s important to go beyond that. Sometimes it takes us a minute to figure that out!
To my shame, I listened to this while editing a photo of a woman smiling and laughing through the semi-frosted window of a local bar. Also, God bless Phil Hartman.
Amen! I finally arrived at a point in my life and photography where I could see that the guardians of the art world’s gates are a bunch of cowards, terrified that their peers will scoff and ridicule any off-script thinking. There are good curators of course, but the bulk of them want to succeed in the same way as timid artists: stick to the already proven. All you can do is challenge your own self to do your best work and hope somebody sees your half-court basket if it ever happens.
Great piece again, man. Definitely one of the best parts of my subscriptions on this platform are these “audio verites” from you. Always so good. Also, I remember seeing the colon blow when it first aired, I was young but I’ve always been a huge SNL fan and that’s a classic.
Thx man!!!! So glad to hear that you’re enjoying it. Kind of feel like I’m sending these messages out into the void, like all the work that we produced on social media. It’s a huge reward for me when anybody makes any kind of positive comment so I sincerely appreciate it. And yeah, Colon Blow is one of my all-time favorites!
Loved this. It is a challenge everyday to deal with the balance of what is commercially successful and what we want to do as artists. Most days, I try to let it go... but damn if it isn't grating when an HDR shot straight out of 2014 lands somebody a lucrative deal. Of course, I'm happy for them and at the same time a bit disgusted with the world. So it goes, huh? Cheers, Jim.
Cheers Hanz and thanks for listening! Yeah there’s a ton of derivative work out there that seems to get a lot of love - it’s disheartening, but I just tell myself to keep going. It’s all we can do. Besides, an agent told me once that commercial photography is 95% about the business, knocking on doors, chasing after it, and 5% is about taking the photos. I’m not sure I can do that, or want to, so I just do my own thing.
Strange how the Universe drops things in our laps at the appropriate time. If I’d listened to this 2 months ago, I would’ve pushed back a bit and say just let people shoot what they want to shoot. But now I’m trying to shoot with more intention and “make the attempt” because I want to push myself. Just today I wrote my next post for next week about how shooting on pure instinct is actually due to fear of trying and failing (at least for myself).
Thanks for your thoughts!!! I think as we grow as creative people, our perspective is constantly changing. I certainly agree if someone is happy where they are with what they’re doing, even if it’s something somebody else has done, then that’s cool, because you have to please yourself before anybody else. But I do think if you’re trying to grow, you have to push yourself, test yourself, educate yourself about the medium you’re trying to grow in, and make consistent efforts towards that growth. To be clear: I myself have taken all the pictures I’m saying not to take in this piece 😂 - most of us start out copying other photographers or just producing really kind of inept work. But if we wanna get past that, it’s important to go beyond that. Sometimes it takes us a minute to figure that out!
To my shame, I listened to this while editing a photo of a woman smiling and laughing through the semi-frosted window of a local bar. Also, God bless Phil Hartman.
😂😂😂😂😂 - You are forgiven!
Amen! I finally arrived at a point in my life and photography where I could see that the guardians of the art world’s gates are a bunch of cowards, terrified that their peers will scoff and ridicule any off-script thinking. There are good curators of course, but the bulk of them want to succeed in the same way as timid artists: stick to the already proven. All you can do is challenge your own self to do your best work and hope somebody sees your half-court basket if it ever happens.